the spectral element method for elastic wave

propagation and surface diffraction is obtained at a low computational cost. The method is ... dimensional elastic wave propagation in complex geometries.
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 45, 1139–1164 (1999)

THE SPECTRAL ELEMENT METHOD FOR ELASTIC WAVE EQUATIONS—APPLICATION TO 2-D AND 3-D SEISMIC PROBLEMS DIMITRI KOMATITSCH1 , JEAN-PIERRE VILOTTE1;∗ , ROSSANA VAI2 , 2 Ã JOSEÃ M. CASTILLO-COVARRUBIAS2 AND FRANCISCO J. SANCHEZ-SESMA 1DÃ epartement

de Sismologie (URA 195) and DÃepartement de ModÃelisation Physique et NumÃerique; Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris; 4 Place Jussieu; 75252 – Paris Cedex 05; France 2Instituto de IngenierÃa; UNAM; Cd. Universitaria; Apdo 70-412; Coyoacà an 04510; MÃexico D.F.; Mexico

SUMMARY A spectral element method for the approximate solution of linear elastodynamic equations, set in a weak form, is shown to provide an ecient tool for simulating elastic wave propagation in realistic geological structures in two- and three-dimensional geometries. The computational domain is discretized into quadrangles, or hexahedra, deÿned with respect to a reference unit domain by an invertible local mapping. Inside each reference element, the numerical integration is based on the tensor-product of a Gauss –Lobatto –Legendre 1-D quadrature and the solution is expanded onto a discrete polynomial basis using Lagrange interpolants. As a result, the mass matrix is always diagonal, which drastically reduces the computational cost and allows an ecient parallel implementation. Absorbing boundary conditions are introduced in variational form to simulate unbounded physical domains. The time discretization is based on an energy-momentum conserving scheme that can be put into a classical explicit-implicit predictor=multicorrector format. Long term energy conservation and stability properties are illustrated as well as the eciency of the absorbing conditions. The accuracy of the method is shown by comparing the spectral element results to numerical solutions of some classical two-dimensional problems obtained by other methods. The potentiality of the method is then illustrated by studying a simple three-dimensional model. Very accurate modelling of Rayleigh wave propagation and surface di raction is obtained at a low computational cost. The method is shown to provide an ecient tool to study the di raction of elastic waves and the large ampliÿcation of ground motion caused by three-dimensional surface topographies. Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS:

elastodynamics; explicit spectral element method; seismology

INTRODUCTION In computational seismology and earthquake engineering, considerable e orts have been devoted for developing highly accurate numerical techniques for the solution of elastic wave equations. An increasing number of applications, such as elastic waveform modelling for realistic geological media or the assessment of site e ects in earthquake ground motion, have underlined the need for ∗

Correspondence to: Jean-Pierre Vilotte, DÃepartement de Sismologie, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. E-mail: [email protected] Contract=grant sponsor: DGAPA-UNAM; Contract=grant number: IN 108295

CCC 0029–5981/99/211139–26$17.50 Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 11 March 1998 Revised 5 October 1998

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D. KOMATITSCH ET AL.

high-performance methods that are able to routinely handle complex two- and three-dimensional geological con gurations of high practical interest. Finite di erence methods, that have been widely used in computational seismology, require a large number of grid points to achieve the expected accuracy [1; 2], even with high-order explicit or implicit spatial operators [3; 4]. Free surface boundaries and complex con gurations coarse modelling produce lack of precision in the simulation of Rayleigh wave propagation [5; 6]. In practice, a dicult trade-o between numerical dispersion and computational cost is required [7; 8]. Finite element methods have attracted somewhat less interest among seismologists [9]. One of the reasons for that is that low-order nite element methods exhibit poor dispersion properties [10], while higher-order classical nite elements raise some troublesome problems like the occurrence of spurious waves. Recently, space–time and Galerkin= least-squares nite element methods, related to Hamilton’s principle, have been introduced both for acoustic and full elastic wave propagation [11–13] with some success, even though application of these methods to realistic seismological problems have still to be shown. Boundary element methods [14; 15] have been successfully applied in seismology [16; 17]. The main advantages are that the solution is sought over a domain one dimension lower than the physical domain, and that the radiation condition is a priori satis ed. Such methods require homogeneous domains and linear constitutive laws (unless a scheme in time domain is adopted). The linear system to be solved is non-symmetric and, in some cases, it can be ill-conditioned. The expected computational advantage in processing time and storage requirement is, therefore, not always achieved. In their pioneering work [18], Aki and Larner represented complex wave elds by a simple superposition of plane waves. Since then, this technique (the discrete wave number method, DWN) has been extended by many authors [19; 20]. Particularly interesting has been the combination of discrete wave number expansion for Green function [19; 21] with a boundary integral representation [22]. Higher-order methods like spectral methods, that enable to achieve the expected accuracy using few grid points per wavelength, have also been proposed for elastodynamics problems [23; 24]. To deal with more general boundary conditions, the set of truncated Fourier series is usually replaced by a set of algebraic polynomials (Chebyschev or Legendre) in space [25; 26]. In these methods, the accuracy is shown to depend strongly on the choice of the collocation points. A limitation of the approach is that the non-uniform spacing of the algebraic polynomial collocation points puts stringent constraints on the time-step [27]. Also, spectral methods, like nite di erence methods, cannot handle complex geometries easily nor, if based on a strong formulation, realistic free surfaces. To overcome these drawbacks, several approaches have been considered like, for instance, the use of curvilinear co-ordinate systems [25; 27], or domain decomposition methods [28], but with an increase of the computational cost. Understanding of the similarity between collocation methods and variational formulations with consistent quadrature lead, in uid dynamics, to the spectral element method [29; 30] which may be related to the h–p version of the nite element method [31]. This approach, which brings new

exibility to treat complex geometries, has been proposed for wave propagation problems recently [32–34]. This paper describes a practical spectral element method to solve problems of two- and threedimensional elastic wave propagation in complex geometries. The method, which stems from a weak variational formulation, allows a exible treatment of boundaries or interfaces and deals with free-surface boundary conditions naturally. It combines the geometrical exibility of a low-order Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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method with the exponential convergence rate associated with spectral techniques, and su ers from minimal numerical dispersion and di usion. The unbounded domain is simulated by introducing arti cial boundaries on which absorbing conditions are enforced. As far as the spatial discretization is concerned, our formulation is based on Legendre polynomials and Gauss –Lobatto –Legendre quadrature, which leads to fully explicit schemes while retaining the ecient sum-factorization techniques [35]. Although the particular choice of the sets of algebraic polynomials, Chebyshev or Legendre, and collocation points, related to the numerical quadrature, does not generally a ect the error estimate signi cantly, it greatly a ects the conditioning and sparsity of the resulting set of algebraic equations and it is critical for the eciency of parallel implementations [36]. Our time discretization makes use of an energy-momentum conserving scheme, that can be rewritten into a classical explicit–implicit predictor=multicorrector format that allows an ecient parallel implementation as well. The accuracy of the method is rst illustrated by showing energy conservation or dissipation, depending on the boundary conditions, in a simple rectangular domain. Then the results for the incidence of a surface Rayleigh wave upon a semicircular canyon are compared with those obtained by Kawase [37] using the discrete wavenumber-boundary element method. These reference results have been extensively veri ed and are trustworthy. The agreement is very good. In order to illustrate the capabilities of the method, simulations of some other two- and three-dimensional problems are presented. The results obtained for a two-dimensional layered medium, excited by an explosive linear source, are compared with synthetic seismograms calculated using the indirect boundary element method (IBEM) [38; 39]. Again the agreement is very good. Finally, a threedimensional topography is studied. The possibilities of the method are explored for simple yet rather realistic con gurations.

ELASTIC WAVE EQUATIONS  ⊂ Rnd , We consider an elastic inhomogeneous medium occupying an open, bounded region

where nd is the number of space dimensions. The displacement and velocity vectors at a point  and t ∈ I = [0; T ], with x and time t are denoted by u(x; t) and v(x; t), respectively, where x ∈

I the time interval of interest. The equations of the initial=boundary-value problem of elastic wave propagation are v˙ = div[b] + f

(1)

u˙ = v

(2)

u(x; 0) = u 0 (x)

(3)

v(x; 0) = v0 (x)

(4)

with the initial conditions

where b(x; t) is the stress tensor; f(x; t) is a generalized body force;  = (x)¿0 is the mass density; u 0 (x) and v0 (x) are, respectively, the initial displacement and velocity elds. A dot over a symbol indicates partial di erentiation with respect to time. In component forms, div[b] is ij; j with i; j = 1; 2; : : : ; nd . The stress is determined by Hooke’s law b(∇u) = c (x) : ∇u (x; t) Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

(5)

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where c (x) is the elastic tensor at a point x and ∇u = ui; j is the displacement gradient. In components form, ij (x; t) = cijkl (x)uk; l (x; t)

(6)

with uk; l = @uk =@xl . Since we are considering an elastic medium, c(x) is symmetric cijkl = cjikl = cijlk = cklij

(7)

and positive de nite cijkl

ij kl ¿0



ij

=

ji

6= 0

(8)

In computational seismology, two simple source terms are often considered. The rst is a point force f(x; t) = fi eˆ i  (x − x0 )G(t − t0 )

(9)

where fi is the magnitude of the force applied at point x0 and at time t0 in the eˆ i direction; (x − x0 ) is the Dirac function and G(t − t0 ) is an arbitrary function describing the force time variation. The second is an equivalent body force, derived from a seismic moment density tensor distribution, which represents the equivalent stress distribution associated with seismic sources f(x; t) = − div[m(x; t)]

(10)

where m(x; t) is the seismic moment density tensor at point x and time t. In many seismological applications, a point source approximation to a seismic event may be quite satisfactory and nite sources may be generated by straightforward superposition of simple point sources [40]. For such a case we have m (x; t) = M(t) (x − x0 )

(11)

where M is a symmetric tensor that has all the properties of a stress tensor. The spherical part of the moment tensor carries information about P waves only, while the deviatoric part propagates S and P waves. In three dimensions, depending on the eigenvalues j of M, pure shear faults (1 = − 3 ; 2 = 0), pure tension cracks (1 6= 0; 2 = 3 = 0), explosive sources (1 = 2 = 3 6= 0) or compensated linear dipoles (1 6= 0; 2 = 3 = − 1 =2) can be simulated. Body wave radiation depends linearly on the rate of change of the moment tensor. A simple rise time approximation can be used: M(t) = M0 G(t − t0 )

(12)

where M0 is a constant moment tensor. Our formulation provides a natural way to introduce these point sources. Also, for elastic, isotropic media we can completely describe the incidence of plane waves using analytical means and give tractions at a boundary to enforce their cancellation. Alternatively, from the analytical solution it is also possible to compute the initial displacement, velocity and acceleration for all the points of the model. Boundary conditions In geophysical problems, solutions are often assumed to extend to in nity along some directions. As a result, a fundamental obstacle to the direct application of several numerical methods is the Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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presence of an unbounded domain. When the numerical method does not a priori satisfy the radiation condition, the formulation has to be de ned over a bounded region by introducing an arti cial external boundary with appropriate absorbing boundary conditions. The boundary of the open domain , denoted by , is therefore decomposed into =

int



ext

(13)

where int and ext denote non-overlapping subregions, and int the physical boundary.

ext

being the arti cial external boundary

Physical boundary conditions. The physical boundary int is divided into two non-overlapping parts Tint and gint , where the traction vector and the displacement eld are respectively prescribed: (x; t) · n(x) = T(x; t) on

int T

(14)

u(x; t) = g(x; t) on

int g

(15)

T(x; t) is the prescribed boundary traction vector at a point x and time t and g(x; t) the prescribed displacement eld. In component form  · n is ij nj . Absorbing boundary conditions. The representation of the radiation condition associated with the external boundary is a dicult problem, and numerous approximate schemes have been proposed in the geophysical literature [41]. Employing an asymptotic expansion of the far- eld solution to generate a sequence of local boundary operators [42], exact non-local boundary conditions have now been derived. They are, however, computationally expensive and their application has been mainly restricted up to now to accoustic problems [43; 44]. We assume here a simple local approximation based on the variational formulation of the paraxial condition originally introduced by Clayton and Engquist [45]. Along the boundary surface, the local transient impedance of ext is approximated by use of a limited wave-number expansion of the elastodynamics equation in the Fourier domain. Such an approximation is accurate for waves impinging on the boundary at small angles only. In the following, a rst-order approximation, close to that of Stacey [46], is retained. On the arti cial external boundary, the condition is expressed as t = cL [v · n] n + cT vT

(16)

where t is the boundary traction; n is the unit outward normal to the surface; vT = v − [v · n] n the projection of the velocity eld on the surface; cL and cT are the propagation velocities of P (longitudinal) and S (transversal) waves, respectively. Variational formulation In order to outline the spectral element method, we rst start with the variational formulation of the physical problem. The solution u is searched in the space of kinematically admissible displacements: St = {u(x; t) ∈ H 1 ( )nd : × I → Rnd ; u(x; t) = g(x; t) on Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

int g

× I}

(17)

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where H 1 is the classical Sobolev space that denotes the space of square-integrable functions with square-integrable generalized rst derivatives. Introducing the function space V of the testfunctions w: V = {w(x) ∈ H 1 ( )nd : → Rnd ; w(x) = 0 on

int g }

(18)

the weak form of the problem (1)–(3) reads: nd u ∈ St , such that ∀t ∈ I and ∀w ∈ V ˙ + a(w; u) = (w; f) + hw; Ti (w; v)

int T

+ hw; ti

ext

˙ = (w; v) (w; u)

(19) (20)

with (w; u(: ; t)|t=0 ) = (w; u 0 )

(21)

(w; v(: ; t)|t=0 ) = (w; v0 )

(22)

2

where (·; ·) is the classical L inner product, and Z v · u dV (w; u) = Z



hw; ui =

w·ud

(23) (24)

The H 1 bilinear form a(·; ·) is the strain-energy inner product and is symmetric, V-elliptic and continuous: Z Z  : ∇w dV = ∇w : c : ∇u dV (25) a(w; u) =



where in component form,  : ∇w = ij @wi =@xj . Spatial discretization  is discretized into nel non-overlapping elementary quadrilaterals The original physical domain

S  e . This partition

 = nel

 e of the domain is generically referred to as the quadrangulation

e=1  e is denoted w h |  . Let and is denoted Q h . The restriction of the test-function w to the element

e nd us denote  = [−1; 1], and the reference volume  , which is a square or a cube depending on  e ∈ Q h , we suppose that there exists the spatial dimension nd of the problem. For each element

an invertible mapping function Fe between the reference volume and a local coordinate system  e , de ned as Fe : →  e such that x() = Fe (). We can then make use of  of the element

this mapping to go between the physical and the reference domain, and vice versa. Associated with the spatial discretization Q h , one introduces a piecewise-polynomial approximation SNh × VNh of the functional space S × V de ned previously: SNh = {u h ∈ S: u h ∈ L2 ( )nd and u h |  e ◦ Fe ∈ [PN ( )]nd }

(26)

VNh = {w h ∈ V: w h ∈ L2 ( )nd and w h |  e ◦ Fe ∈ [PN ( )]nd }

(27)

and

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Since VNh ⊂ V, given two adjacent elements, say e1 and e2 , and any w h ∈ VNh , the restrictions of w h to these elements must coincide along the intersection of their respective boundaries. The mappings Fe1 and Fe2 should be compatible in the sense that if  e2 = Fe1 ( 1 ) = Fe2 ( 2 )  e1 ∩



(28)

◦ Fe1 must be an ane mapping from

1 and 2 being two edges of the reference square, then Fe−1 2   e2 , generated as the images by Fe1

1 onto 2 . In particular, the set of nodes located on e1 ∩

of the Gauss–Lobatto nodes on 1 must coincide with those that are images of the Gauss –Lobatto nodes on 2 . This ensures the continuity across element boundaries. Inside each reference volume ; [PN ( )]nd is taken to be the space generated as the tensorproduct space of all polynomials of degree 6N in each of the nd spatial directions. The characteristic length scale associated with the underlying mesh is denoted h. The spectral element spatial discretization can hence be characterized by the total number of elements nel and by the polynoh mial degree N used on each element. The discrete variational problem then reads: nd uNh ∈ SN; t, h h such that ∀t ∈ I and ∀wN ∈ VN , (wNh ; ˙vhN ) + a(wNh uNh ) = (wNh ; f) + hwNh ; Ti

int T

+ hwNh ; ti

ext

(wNh ; u˙ hN ) = (wNh ; vNh )

(29) (30)

with h ) (wNh ; uNh (:; t)|t = 0 ) = (wNh ; u0N

(31)

h ) (wNh ; vNh (:; t)|t = 0 ) = (wNh ; v0N

(32)

The spatial discretization must be completed by de ning the discrete inner products associated with the continuous inner products involved in the variational formulation. This is done by choosing a numerical quadrature for integrating each element integral, de ned over the ele e in the x-space, after a pull back on the parent domain , using the local mentary domain

mapping Fe . Although the particular choice of the unisolvent basis points  i on the reference element and the numerical quadrature can be made independently, in order to take advantage of ecient sum-factorization techniques, and to improve the conditioning and sparsity of the resulting set of algebraic equations, the unisolvent set of (N + 1) nd basis points for PN is taken to be the nd tensor product of the N + 1 Gauss –Lobatto –Legendre points. For nd = 3, this de nes the grid eN = {( i ;  j ; k ); i; j; k = 1; : : : ; N + 1}, with  i ,  j and k the Gauss –Lobatto points in each direction of the reference element . The discrete inner products are therefore based on the tensor-product of 1-D Gauss–Lobatto–Legendre formulas. The quadrature points are the same as the basis points, and for N + 1 quadrature points, all polynomials of degree 62N − 1 can be integrated exactly. The variational formulation requires two inner products, the L2 inner product and the H 1 bilinear form, their discrete formulation being, for nd = 3: (wNh ; uNh )N =

nel NP +1 P

wNh |  e ( i ;  j ; k )uNh |  e ( i ;  j ; k )|Je ( i ;  j ; k )|!ijk

e=1 i; j; k=1

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aN (wNh ; uNh ) = =

nel NP +1 P

˜ Nh |  ( i ;  j ; k )|Je ( i ;  j ; k )|!ijk b( i ;  j ; k ) : ∇w

e

e=1 i; j; k=1 nel NP +1 P

(34)

˜ Nh |  ( i ;  j ; k ) : c( i ;  j ; k ) : ∇u ˜ Nh |  ( i ;  j ; k )|Je ( i ;  j ; k )|!ijk ∇w

e

e

e=1 i; j; k=1

(35) where Je is the Jacobian of the co-ordinate transformation at the element level, !ijk = !i !j !k with ˜ is the pull back !i ¿0 are the quadrature weights of the 1D Gauss –Lobatto –Legendre rule, and ∇ of the gradient operator on the reference volume : ˜ Nh |  () = ∇ wNh |  ()Fe−1 () ∇x wNh |  e = ∇w

e

e

(36)

Fe () = @ Fe () being the gradient of the geometrical transformation, and  = (; ; ). Such a consistent integration is shown to be sucient for complex geometries or heterogeneous elastic parameters [47], which is an important consideration when wave equations are to be solved for situations of practical interest. The piecewise polynomial approximation wNh of w is de ned using the Lagrange interpolation operator IN on the Gauss–Lobatto–Legendre grid eN : IN (w|  e ) is the unique polynomial of PN ( ) which coincides with w|  e at the (N + 1)nd points of eN . The corresponding Lagrange interpolants QNe are therefore the tensor-product of nd one-dimensional Lagrange interpolants of degree N. For nd = 3, QNijk; e ∈ [PN ( )]3 , QNijk; e (l ;  m ; n ) = il jm kn

∀(l ;  m ; n ) ∈ eN NP +1 e QNijk; e ( i ;  j ; k )wijk wNh |  e (x; y; z) = IN (w|  e ) = i; j; k=1

(37) (38)

with QNijk; e (; ; ) = li;Ne () ⊗ lNj; e () ⊗ lNk; e ()

(39)

where li;e N () denotes the characteristic 1-D Lagrange polynomial of degree N associated with the Gauss –Lobatto–Legendre point i of the corresponding one dimensional quadrature formula; e = wNh |  e ◦ Fe ( i ;  j ; k ), and il = 1 if i = l, il = 0 otherwise. x = Fe () and wijk The procedure outlined above leads, like in classical nite element methods, to a coupled system of second-order ordinary di erential equations in time: M˙v(t) = F ext (t) − F int (uNh ; t);

u(t) ˙ = v(t)

(40)

where now u(t) = {uijk (t)} and v(t) = {vijk (t)} respectively denote the displacement and velocity vectors of nd × nnode components, nnode being the total number of integration points that form the global integration S grid N de ned as the assembly of the elementary integration grids on each element N = e eN . The internal force vector F int , at node {lmn}, is de ned as int = aN (QNlmn ; uNh ) − hQNlmn ; t(uNh )iN; Flmn

Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ext

(41)

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where the element summation in the second term on the right-hand side extends to all the elements that share a face with the arti cial external boundary ext . The external force vector F ext at node {lmn} is Flmn; ext = (QNlmn ; f)N + hQNlmn ; TiN;

int T

(42)

When considering an equivalent body force derived from a seismic moment tensor density distribution with a localized spatial support—see equation (10)—the term on the right-hand side in equation (42) can be written after integration by parts:  Z P ∇QNlmn; e : m(x; t) dV + hQNlmn ; TiN; Tint (43) Flmn; ext = e

e

where the assembly operation involves only the elements that belong to the spatial support of the moment density distribution for the rst term and elements that share a common face with the physical boundary Tint for the second term. The mass matrix M is simply de ned as Z nel P QNe ⊗ QNe  dV (44) M= e=1

e

An attractive property of the method is that, in contrast with classical nite element methods, due to the consistent integration scheme and the use of Gauss –Lobatto Legendre formulas, the mass matrix M is by construction always diagonal, leading to a fully explicit scheme. This was rst pointed by Maday and Patera in the context of spectral approximation of elliptic and Navier–Stokes equations [30]. The spectral element method therefore combines the geometrical exibility of the nite element method with the fast convergence associated with spectral techniques. The discrete solution su ers from minimal numerical dispersion and di usion, a fact of primary importance in the solution of realistic geophysical problems [44; 48]. Discretization in time We discretize the time interval of interest using a time step t. Introducing three control parameters , and , all belonging to [0; 1], the semi-discrete momentum equation is then enforced in conservative form [49] at tn+ : 1 ext h h M [vn+1 − vn ] = Fn+ − F int (un+ ; vn+ ) (45) t      1 vn + vn+1 + t 2 − an (46) un+1 = un + t 1 −

2

  1 1 [vn+1 − vn ] + 1 − an (47) an+1 =

t

: ext : ext + (1 − )Fnext . Simo et al. [49] have shown = Fn+1 where un+ = un+1 + (1 − )un and Fn+ that for = = = 1=2 this energy–momentum method exactly preserves the total energy, linear and angular momenta (these values de ne an acceleration-independent algorithm). It is second-order accurate if and only if = 1=2. This Newmark-type scheme can be generalized to a predictormulticorrector format that allows an ecient parallelization. The scheme is shown in this case Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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to be conditionally stable, and the associated Courant condition depends on the size of the smallest grid cell. Denoting nel the total number of elements and nd the spatial dimension, the average size d of a spectral element for a xed size of the model under study is proportional to n−1=n . It can also el be shown that on the reference interval [−1; 1], denoting N the polynomial order, the minimum grid spacing between two Gauss–Lobatto–Legendre points occurs at the edges of the interval, both in −1 and in 1, and is proportional to N −2 . Therefore, the Courant condition, related to the size d of the smallest grid cell, can be written tC ¡O(n−1=n N −2 ). One can note that with the help of el a sub-stepping procedure [50], the scheme can achieve fourth-order accuracy, with no additional storage or extra computations of high-order gradients, while retaining the stability, conservation properties and implementation of this second-order method. In the following box the second-order iterative scheme is summarized. i = 0 (i is the iteration number)

Predictor phase: Solution phase: Corrector phase:

(i) un+1 = u˜ n+1

(i) (i) vn+1 = 0 an+1 = a˜ n+1

1 1 (i) (i) (i) ext Mv(i) = Fn+ − F int (un+ ; vn+ )− − vn ] M[vn+1 t t

(i+1) (i) = vn+1 + v vn+1 t (i+1) (i+1) un+1 = u˜ n+1 + v

n+1 1 (i+1) (i+1) an+1 v = a˜ n+1 −

t n+1 where the predictors are simply de ned as     1 vn + t 2 an − u˜ n+1 = un + t 1 −

2

 a˜ n+1 =

1−

1

 an −

1 vn

t

Within this energy–momentum-conserving framework, there is no diculty to handle a more complex constitutive behaviour, in particular to incorporate attenuation. Convergence and stability have been extensively studied by Hughes and Simo [49–51]. Numerical implementation. In all the simulations presented in this paper, the parameters of the predictor-multicorrector algorithm are = 1=2, = 1=2 and = 1. The associated Courant number can be de ned as nC = max [ct=x], where c is the elastic wave speed and x the collocation d grid spacing. Since, as seen before, this Courant condition behaves like tC ¡O(n−1=n N −2 ), with el nel the number of elements, nd the spatial dimension and N the polynomial order, a trade-o has to be found between the h and the p discretization. Typically, when the geometry of the problem exhibits important variations and therefore imposes a high number of elements to be correctly sampled, we use a higher number of elements with a lower polynomial degree inside each element, while when the signal we want to propagate in the model has some signi cant energy Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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at higher frequencies, but the geometry is smoother, we use a lower number of elements and a higher polynomial degree inside each element. In practice, in the simulations presented below, we used a polynomial approximation of order N = 5 or of order N = 8, depending on the geometry of the problem and of the frequencies involved, and empirically determined the maximum Courant number to be of the order of 0·60, which is the value that has been used in all the examples presented. The method is shown to work accurately with a low number of grid points per minimum wavelength, corresponding to the maximal frequency fmax de ned as the frequency above which the spectral amplitude of the source becomes less than 5 per cent of the maximum value associated with the fundamental frequency f0 . For a Ricker wavelet in time, one gets the approximate relation fmax ' 2·5f0 . In practice, a spatial sampling of the order of 4 or 5 points per minimum wavelength has been found very accurate when working with a polynomial degree between N = 5 and N = 8, and has been used as the minimum sampling value in all the simulations presented in this article. Below this value, the solution quickly develops signi cant numerical oscillations during the propagation. Such an abrupt transition is characteristic of methods with minimal numerical dispersion and di usion. Typically, for two-dimensional simulations with a 100 000 points curvilinear grid, the memory occupation is of the order of 32 Megabytes and the CPU time, for a simulation over 2000 time steps, is of the order of 15 min on an Ultra Sparc 1 (140 MHz). For large three-dimensional simulations in a heterogeneous medium, using a 5 000 000 points curvilinear grid, the memory occupation is of the order of 1·5 Gigabyte and the CPU time, for a simulation over 2000 time steps, is of the order of 1·5 h on a CM5 128 nodes.

TWO-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL EXAMPLES Three sets of examples are included here to demonstrate the numerical eciency of the proposed procedure. Validation of the method against classical two-dimensionl analytical or numerical solutions have been extensively studied [52; 53] and will not be repeated here. The rst example is included here in order to examine the stability and the accuracy of the proposed spectral element approximation together with the behaviour of absorbing boundary conditions. Both concepts are studied by measuring the time evolution of the kinetic and potential energy in a discretized domain. In the second example, results obtained by the spectral element method (SEM) are compared with the ones computed by more widely used numerical methods. The response of a semicircular canyon under incidence of Rayleigh waves is presented. This canonical example was rst computed by Kawase [37] by means of the discrete wavenumber-boundary element method (DWNBEM) and is often regarded as a benchmark. Kawase’s results have been checked recently by Ohminato and Chouet [6] using a nite di erence method, and by Moczo and co-workers [54] using a hybrid method. Finally a study case was designed to assess the performance of the method in the presence of lateral variations of topography and material properties. The ground motion is computed for an irregular layer excited by an explosive source. As for previous example, this problem has no analytical solution, so we computed the surface seismograms by means of the indirect boundary element method (IBEM). Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 1. Long-term stability of the energy–momentum-conserving time scheme for the case of a homogeneous elastic medium, bounded by free surfaces, with a vertical force source inside the volume. The time evolution of the total and potential energy is displayed for 105 time steps (t = 1·5 ms). The total energy is shown to remain constant during the simulation

Energy–momentum conservation and absorbing conditions Numerical methods tend to accumulate error as the various computations are performed. Sometimes numerical damping is implicitly introduced in the calculations, solutions degradate in amplitude and noise can prevail. In other cases amplitudes grow and also become noisy. Both situations are obviously undesirable, as we require the numerical method to be reliable and stable. First, we verify the stability of the SEM and check energy conservation inside a rectangular domain with free boundaries. In this example a force is applied at an interior point and the generated waves are allowed to propagate freely in the domain. Assuming there is no damping, waves bounce back and forth in the model. The energy provided by the applied force must be conserved within the domain. For allR the elements, the elementary R kinetic and potential energies are computed by means of Uce = 12 (@uie =@t)2 dV and Upe = 12 ije ije dV, respectively. Summation on all the elements is then performed, in order to obtain the total potential and kinetic energies. The region under study has a size of 1600 × 1600 m and is discretized using 484 spectral elements with a polynomial order of N = 5, the total number of points of the global grid being 12 321. The material properies of the medium are cL = 3200 m s−1 , cT = 1847·5 m s−1 and  = 2200 kg m−3 . The vertical force is applied exactly at the centre of the model in (x; z) = (800; 800) m and its time variation is a Ricker wavelet having a central frequency of 15 Hz. Figure 1 depicts the potential and total energies for 105 time steps (from 0 to 150 s), the elementary time step being t = 1·5 ms. We see a constant conversion between kinetic and potential energy and remark that, even after such a high number of time steps, the total energy remains constant. The method exhibits good stability properties. Instead of free boundaries, we now specify absorbing conditions. According to equation (19), the necessary tractions in the variational principle are given using expression (16), which essentially corresponds to dampers. Figure 2 shows, for the same force and the same model as in previous Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 2. (Upper gure) Energy evolution for the case of a homogeneous elastic medium, limited by absorbing boundaries, when a vertical force source is applied inside the volume. The total energy decreases rapidly as the energy is radiated outside the domain. Small spurious re ections may appear for waves impinging on the boundaries at small incidence angles, due to the zeroth-order approximation used here. These spurious re ections, that keep a small fraction (less than a few percent) of the total energy in the system, are absorbed as soon as they reach a new absorbing boundary. Due to the scale, this e ect is hardly visible on this gure and can only be observed when zooming on the area indicated by an arrow a. (Lower gure) Close-up of the energy residual. Potential energy converts into kinetic energy and vice versa around t = 1 s due to a parasitic corner e ect. The spurious re ections are absorbed around t = 1·45 s

example, the total energy. Before the waves reach the boundary, the total energy inside the domain remains constant, but once the waves start to interact with the absorbing edges, it rapidly tends to a value close to zero. The curve exhibits two steps that correspond respectively rst to the absorption of the P wave (fastest wave) and second to that of the S wave (slowest wave). A small residual is visible on the close-up presented on the same gure, due to the fact that the paraxial approximation used is exact only along the normal to the boundary, and becomes less and less accurate with an increasing angle of incidence. This arti cial residual is itself absorbed after having propagated through the grid, around t = 1·45 s. The conversion between kinetic and Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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potential energy around t = 1 s is attributed to a parasitic corner e ect at a time when the di erent wavefronts reach the four corners of the grid. The semicircular canyon In the study of wave propagation in and around irregular topographies, a well-known example of Trifunac [55], namely the di raction of a plane SH wave by a semicircular canyon at the surface of a half-space, it was possible to reach this classical analytical solution because of the separability of the reduced wave equation in the half-space, when cylindrical co-ordinates are used. Dealing with the propagation of P-SV waves, variables in the Navier equation in the half-space cannot be separated anymore. No analytical solution is attainable and use must be made of numerical methods. Wong [56] and Sanchez-Sesma and Campillo [38] studied the problem in the frequency domain and produced results for incident P, SV and Rayleigh waves using numerical schemes of integral type. Kawase [37] also resorted to boundary integrals, but computed the required Green’s functions using the discrete wavenumber method. His results have been veri ed extensively [6; 54], therefore they are trustworthy. The model is characterized by cL = 2000 m s−1 , cT = 1000 m s−1 (Poisson’s ratio  = 1=3) and  = 1000 kg m−3 . The radius of the canyon is 1000 m. In this paper we choose to present the results for an incoming Rayleigh wave. To simulate such an excitation, the displacement, velocity and acceleration elds of the unperturbed Rayleigh wave solution are given at the initial time, and are computed from the exact solution of the problem in a half-space. Figure 3 shows two snapshots of the displacement eld at time t = 0 and t = 6 s for a Rayleigh wave whose horizontal component varies as a Ricker wavelet having a fundamental frequency of 1 Hz. The computational grid of spectral elements is illustrated in the same gure. Note that the mesh is re ned in the neighbourhood of the canyon. The grid is composed of 1960 elements, the polynomial order used is N = 5, the total number of points of the global grid being 49 596. We propagate the wave eld for 8 s (6400 time steps of t = 1·25 ms each). On all the boundaries of the grid except the free surface, an absorbing condition is imposed. When the wave hits the canyon a pattern of di racted waves is produced. In Figures 4 and 5, for horizontal and vertical components respectively, the displacement eld is depicted along with Kawase’s [37] plots. The 71 receivers are located exactly at the free surface between x = −3 and x = 3 km. The agreement is excellent and our results are free of numerical artefacts. The stability of the generated surface wave is veri ed since it propagates correctly with no dispersion and with the appropriate velocity. Several comparisons were done with other computations by Kawase for incident P or SV waves. In all cases (not presented here) the agreement was very good. It is instructive to examine the spectral ratio for the displacement with respect to the unperturbed horizontal displacement of the surface wave. In Figure 6 we present the normalized motion, at the central Ricker frequency, along the line of receivers located at the surface. A large ampli cation on the left side of the canyon and a great reduction at the opposite rim are clearly observed. The presence of the canyon creates a shadow zone, and this is the reason why, in some cases of engineering interest, trenches are used as devices for vibration insulation. An irregular layer To study the behaviour of the method in the presence of lateral irregularity and spatial variation of material properties, the ground motion is computed for an irregular layer in the case of an explosive source located close to the bottom of the layer. As for previous example, this problem has Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 3. Snapshots illustrating the displacement eld as well as the spectral element grid at the initial time (upper gure) and at time t = 6 s (lower gure) for the problem of a semicircular canyon excited by a Rayleigh wave. On all the boundaries of the grid except the free surface, an absorbing condition is imposed. We clearly see a P wave, generated by conversion at the canyon pro le, a re ected Rayleigh wave, as well as numerous weak phases propagating inside the canyon. Each gure is normalized independently with respect to the maximum of the norm of the displacement vector at the corresponding time

no analytical solution, so we computed the surface seismograms by means of the indirect boundary element method (IBEM). In the IBEM, the homogeneity of the regions involved is assumed. This allows us to make use of the well-known exact Green’s function for the full elastic space [38; 57]. The application of the IBEM in the context of irregular layers has been described elsewhere [39]. The spectral element computational grid is depicted in Figure 7, together with the source and receivers locations. The grid is composed of 874 elements and a polynomial order of N = 5 has Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 4. Horizontal displacement synthetic seismograms calculated along the free surface of the semicircular canyon of Figure 3 excited by a Rayleigh wave. The upper gure is a copy of the results published by Kawase (1988), Figure 14(a), the lower gure represents our results drawn at the same scale. The overall agreement is very good apart from some weak parasitic oscillations that appear in the DWNM calculations after t ' 6 s

been used, leading to a global grid made of 22 176 points. The time step used is t = 6·25 ms, and the wave eld is propagated for 25 s (4000 time steps). The depth of the interface varies from 1 to 1·5 km, its geometry being described in kilometres by the function z = 1 + 0·5 cos2 (x=2) for |x|61, therefore the width of the irregularity is 2 km. The material properties of the media are: cThs = 1500 m s−1 and cTlay = 500 m s−1 (in the half-space and in the layer respectively), with a Poisson’s ratio of  = 1=3 in both cases; the densities are hs = 2000 kg m−3 and lay = 1000 kg m−3 . Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 5. Vertical displacement synthetic seismograms calculated along the free surface of the semicircular canyon of Figure 3 excited by a Rayleigh wave. The upper gure is a copy of the results published by Kawase [37] (Figure 14b), the lower gure represents our results drawn at the same scale. The overall agreement is again very good, with the same weak artefacts in the DWNM calculations, as in Figure 4

On all the boundaries of the grid except the free surface, an absorbing condition is imposed. The source, located at 3000 m in depth and 1000 m away from the topography symmetry axis, is assumed to be isotropic (explosion) with a time history given by a Ricker wavelet with a central frequency of 0·75 Hz. Synthetic seismograms are given for 51 receivers located along the at free surface between x = −2 and x = 2 km; the spatial interval between stations is 80 m. Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 6. Spectral amplitude, at the Ricker central frequency, calculated along the free surface of the semicircular canyon of Figure 3 excited by a Rayleigh wave. Our solution (solid line) is very close to the results of Kawase (points). Near the right edge of the canyon, Kawase’s results seem to present a signal excess (the spectral amplitude seems to be slightly too high) that is probably due to the weak oscillations observed in Figures 4 and 5

Figure 7. Model and grid used to compute the seismic response of an irregular layer with a at free surface. The excitation is provided by a linear explosive source located 3000 m deep in the model, and 1000 m away from the symmetry axis of the topography of the interface. On all the boundaries of the grid except the free surface, an absorbing condition is implemented

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Figure 8. Synthetic seismograms along the at free surface of the irregular layer of Figure 7 excited by a low frequency explosive source located in the underlying half-space. Results obtained with SEM (solid line) and IBEM (dashed line) are superimposed. The overall agreement is very good during the rst 10–12 s, then small di erences of weak amplitude appear

The waveforms obtained with both IBEM and SEM are superimposed and are plotted with solid and dashed lines, respectively, in Figure 8. The agreement is very good and, given the fact that the solutions are obtained with completely di erent methods, fully validates both the SEM and the IBEM. Some small di erences can be seen in the later parts of the seismograms. Understanding the origin of these di erences will require additional work. In any case, both methods are reliable. When we analyse the ground motion, we notice that the last stations record a P rst arrival, followed by a P wave multiple, generated at the plane interface between the layer and the half-space. Then, surface waves arrive. Apparently, no multiples can be seen at the centre of the array. At the right side of the irregularity, a shadow zone exists, just as in the previous example. Displacements near the right edge of the bump are relatively small, when compared to the other traces. As distance from this protected area increases, the rst arrival and its multiple are reconstructed. The maximum displacement is recorded inside the valley, where constructive interferences occur. On the other hand, the duration of the vibrations is longer at the extreme stations. P-SV re ection energy rapidly decays, while surface waves propagate further. Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL EXAMPLES The three-dimensional response of a hill In previous sections, we studied the stability and the accuracy of computations using the SEM in two-dimensional cases. Now we describe the application of this technique to study a threedimensional smooth topographical pro le. Recent studies [58; 59] have pointed out the important e ects of a small three-dimensional hill structure and their implications for strong ground motion. The mesh for this model is depicted in Figure 9. The topography is described by a bi-variate Gaussian function (the maximum height is 180 m, the standard deviations along the two perpendicular directions are 250 and 125 m respectively) and its horizontal projection is elliptic. The material properties of the medium are cL = 3200 m s−1 , cT = 1847·5 m s−1 and  = 2200 kg m−3 . The size of the model is 2080 × 2080 × 1050 m and the height of the hill is 180 m. The mesh is composed of 26 × 26 × 14 elements, with a polynomial order of N = 8 used in each direction, leading to a total number of collocation points of 4 935 953. On the vertical boundaries of the grid, periodic conditions are imposed, meaning that the model is in nitely repeated identically along the two horizontal directions. The total duration of the simulation is 0·8 s, with a time step of t = 0·5 ms. Such a duration is short, but intrinsically limited by the arrival time of the parastic waves induced by the use of periodic boundary conditions, due to the nite size of the model.

Figure 9. Three-dimensional model: a 3-D Gaussian shape topography is considered in the case of a homogeneous elastic half-space. The size of the model is 2080 × 2080 × 1050 m. The height of the hill is 180 m. The mesh is composed of 26 × 26 × 14 elements, with a polynomial order of N = 8 used in each direction. The total number of collocation points is 4 935 953. On vertical boundaries, periodic conditions are imposed Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 10. Snapshots at time t = 0 (top), 0·4 (middle) and 0·6 s (bottom) for the model of Figure 9 excited by an S wave polarized along the direction of the small axis of the topography. The vertical cut is done along the direction of polarization. The displacement vector is projected onto the cut plane. The topography generates an important P wave as well as a Rayleigh wave that propagates down the slope

The incoming vertical plane shear wave is polarized along the small axis, and the time variation is given by a Ricker pulse having a central frequency of 10·26 Hz. Note that the incident wavelength is 180 m, precisely the height of the topography. Figure 10 illustrates three snapshots of particle displacement. They correspond to a vertical cut along the minor axis at di erent times (t = 0; 0·4 and 0·6 s). In the upper plot the incident Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 11. Displacement eld at the surface, for the model of Figure 9, projected onto an horizontal plane (top view). The two snapshots are drawn at time t = 0·4 (top) and 0·6 s (bottom) as in Figure 10. The elliptic base of the hill is represented by a dashed line. Clearly-visible Rayleigh and di racted waves preferentially propagate along the small axis direction

shear wave has not reached the free surface yet, the apparently irregular structure of the plot is a visual e ect due to the grid geometry (having a non-uniform grid spacing inside each element). On the other plots, the direct wave reaches the free surface where it is re ected downwards, and signi cant elastic wave di raction appears. On the second plot we can see the main re ected wave propagating towards the lower boundary, and the other waves generated by the presence of the topography. One can recognize the P wave that travels ahead. One can remark the focusing of various di racted waves inside the hill. This phenomenon gives rise to a signi cant ampli cation of the ground motion. At this time (t = 0·4 s) the maximum horizontal displacement appears to be at the inner base of the irregularity. On the other hand, large vertical displacements can also Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Figure 12. Transfer function at the Ricker fundamental frequency along two lines of receivers located at the surface of the model. Upper gure: response recorded along the minor axis. Lower gure: response recorded along the major axis. The transfer function is computed as the ratio between the spectral amplitude of the component of the displacement vector along the direction of polarization of the plane wave source and the spectral amplitude of that incident wave. In each gure, two di erent sources are considered, namely a vertically incident S wave polarized either along the minor or along the major axis. A strong variation of the recorded ampli cation pattern can be observed, underlining the need for 3-D simulation of site ampli cation even in the case of rather simple models

be seen on the topographical pro le. We interpret these ripples as the birth of Rayleigh waves. In fact, the third snapshot clearly shows the familiar displacement pattern of these waves, with their typical elliptical polarization. Note that the hole in the re ected wave front is being lled by the local di raction. The snapshots depict many other waves produced in this process. We can Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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recognize in particular several phases of shear waves and the SP head waves di racted by the interaction of the P wave with the free surface. Two snapshots of the surface motion, normalized independently with respect to the maximum of the norm of the displacement vector at the surface, are given in Figure 11 at the same time as the last two snapshots of Figure 10 (t = 0·4 and 0·6 s). They show from another perspective (top view) the weak emission of a di racted P wave at the surface and the signi cant generation of Rayleigh waves, particularly along the minor axis of the topography. Ground motion along this direction is remarkably stronger than for the other direction. This clearly demonstrates the importance of three-dimensional e ects in non-symmetric stuctures and con rms the existence of preferred directional resonances [60; 61]. On the second snapshot, we also clearly see a numerical parasitic e ect (arti cial waves coming from the boundaries of the model) that are due to the periodic boundary conditions used on the vertical edges of the model. The di erence between ground motions along two perpendicular seismic lines is con rmed in Figure 12, where displacement transfer functions (computed at the Ricker central frequency) are plotted along these lines. The transfer function is computed as the ratio between the spectral amplitude of the component of the displacement vector recorded along the direction of polarization of the source, and the spectral amplitude of the plane wave. Two di erent sources are considered: a S wave polarized along the minor axis of the topography, and a S wave polarized along the major axis. In both cases, the transfer function has been computed for the component of the displacement along the same axis as the direction of polarization of the incident wave. We do not observe any signi cant di erence in the maximum ampli cation level. However, the three-dimensonal e ect is revealed by the completely dissimilar movement pattern illustrated in both gures. Along the minor axis, the response shows large oscillations that suggest important di erential motion. We know that this is due to a modulation of the signal by Rayleigh waves that travel downwards along the slope, preferentially along the minor axis of the topography as seen before. On the other direction, the e ects on ground motion are much smaller. The highest perturbation is restricted to a narrow spatial zone around the summital area. CONCLUSIONS A new tool to simulate elastic wave propagation in arbitrary models has been presented. The formulation of this spectral element method (SEM) has been detailed. The technique is suitable to an ecient parallel implementation and has a low computational cost. We illustrated the method with two simple cases in which the stability and consistency of the approach have been underlined. More realistic models were then considered. The two-dimensional examples (a semicircular canyon and an irregularly strati ed medium) o ered the opportunity to validate the SEM by comparing our synthetic seismograms to those obtained with very di erent methods. The agreement between the results has been found to be very good. Finally, a three-dimensional model has been discussed. The di erent tests presented underline the potentialities of the SEM. This technique appears to ful ll the requirements (low cost and high accuracy) of modern computational seismology. It seems to be a powerful tool for ecient prediction and interpretation of site e ects in seismic ground motion. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank R. Madariaga for his constructive and keen critical remarks. H. Kawase kindly provided us with original reprints of his paper on the semicircular canyon. This work has been partially supported by DGAPA-UNAM, Mexico, under Grant IN108295. Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng. 45, 1139–1164 (1999)